A Chinese woman, Yang Luo Yini (楊羅旖旎), was deported by immigration authorities yesterday, while prosecutors in Taoyuan charged four of her Chinese associates with illegal entry after they landed on the shore of northern Taiwan in a motorboat earlier this month.
Wang Rui (王睿), Su Qianlong (蘇黔龍), Lu Ning (陸寧) and Shi Jian (石堅) were charged with violating the Immigration Act (入出國及移民法) and acting as accomplices to criminal activities.
Su, Lu and Shi took a motorboat from China’s Fujian Province across the Taiwan Strait, and landed on a rocky beach in Taoyuan’s Dayuan District (大園) on Sept. 10, allegedly to pick up Wang and his girlfriend, Yang Luo, who had overstayed their visas and were residing at an apartment in Taipei.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
However, questions remained about their motives, with the authorities saying the five Chinese nationals were suspected of spying, while Taiwanese human rights groups said they are Chinese dissidents fleeing persecution and urged the government not to deport them, and instead grant them political asylum.
Media reports said the five Chinese nationals had planned to sail on to Guam and the Mariana Islands to seek political asylum.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said Wang came to Taiwan on a tourist visa in August last year, but he left his tour group and had been staying around the Greater Taipei area illegally since that time.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
Yang Luo entered Taiwan in June this year after applying for an independent tourist visa, which is limited to 15 days.
Immigration officials said that she met up with Wang, and both have broken visa regulations.
Taiwanese right activists have urged the NIA to conduct a full investigation to ascertain if the five were dissidents. They urged the government not to deport them to China, where they might face severe punishment, including torture and lengthy jail terms.
After learning of Yang Luo’s deportation yesterday morning, several legislators, along with the Taiwan Association for China Human Rights, called a press conference denouncing the NIA’s decision.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) criticized the fast-tracking of the procedure and the authorities’ handling of the case.
“Why were the government and the NIA so quick to act on Yang Luo’s deportation? Are they bowing to pressure and demands from the Chinese government?” they asked, adding that the deportation was a violation of international human rights conventions.
“If these five people were refugees or dissidents, then sending them back to China means certain death for them,” Taiwan Solidarity Union Legislator Lai Chen-chang (賴振昌) said.
The NIA should take time to investigate their cases judiciously and verify their situation, before making a decision on their case, they said.
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
One person was killed and another seven injured today when a tourist shuttle bus plunged 30m to 40m down a ravine in Nantou County, the Tourism Administration said. The bus is suspected to have suddenly accelerated out of control near the flower center of the Sun-Link-Sea Forest Recreation Area, a popular attraction during cherry blossom season. Of the eight onboard, a 66-year-old man was killed, four were seriously injured and three sustained minor injuries, including the driver. The Nantou County Police Department said it received a report of the incident at 12:15pm and dispatched seven teams to assist. All surviving passengers have been transferred
RSS